New Living Translation

English Standard Version

1What sorrow awaits the unjust judges and those who issue unfair laws.

1Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,

2They deprive the poor of justice and deny the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and take advantage of orphans.

2to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

3What will you do when I punish you, when I send disaster upon you from a distant land? To whom will you turn for help? Where will your treasures be safe?

3What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

4You will stumble along as prisoners or lie among the dead. But even then the LORD’s anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike. Judgment against Assyria

4Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

5“What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger. I use it as a club to express my anger.

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!

6I am sending Assyria against a godless nation, against a people with whom I am angry. Assyria will plunder them, trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.

6Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

7But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool; his mind does not work that way. His plan is simply to destroy, to cut down nation after nation.

7But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;

8He will say, ‘Each of my princes will soon be a king.

8for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings?

9We destroyed Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath fell before us as Arpad did. And we destroyed Samaria just as we did Damascus.

9Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose gods were greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.

10As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11So we will defeat Jerusalem and her gods, just as we destroyed Samaria with hers.’”

11shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?”

12After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant.

12When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

13He boasts, “By my own powerful arm I have done this. With my own shrewd wisdom I planned it. I have broken down the defenses of nations and carried off their treasures. I have knocked down their kings like a bull.

13For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.

14I have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs. No one can even flap a wing against me or utter a peep of protest.”

14My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.”

15But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it? Can a wooden cane walk by itself?

15Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!

16Therefore, the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will send a plague among Assyria’s proud troops, and a flaming fire will consume its glory.

16Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.

17The LORD, the Light of Israel, will be a fire; the Holy One will be a flame. He will devour the thorns and briers with fire, burning up the enemy in a single night.

17The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

18The LORD will consume Assyria’s glory like a fire consumes a forest in a fruitful land; it will waste away like sick people in a plague.

18The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

19Of all that glorious forest, only a few trees will survive— so few that a child could count them! Hope for the LORD’s People

19The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.

20In that day the remnant left in Israel, the survivors in the house of Jacob, will no longer depend on allies who seek to destroy them. But they will faithfully trust the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

20In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21A remnant will return; yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.

21A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

22But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant of them will return. The LORD has rightly decided to destroy his people.

22For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

23Yes, the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, has already decided to destroy the entire land.

23For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

24So this is what the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, says: “O my people in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you with rod and club as the Egyptians did long ago.

24Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

25In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them.”

25For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.

26The LORD of Heaven’s Armies will lash them with his whip, as he did when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites at the rock of Oreb, or when the LORD’s staff was raised to drown the Egyptian army in the sea.

26And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.

27In that day the LORD will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders.

27And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”

28Look, the Assyrians are now at Aiath. They are passing through Migron and are storing their equipment at Micmash.

28He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;

29They are crossing the pass and are camping at Geba. Fear strikes the town of Ramah. All the people of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, are running for their lives.

29they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

30Scream in terror, you people of Gallim! Shout out a warning to Laishah. Oh, poor Anathoth!

30Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!

31There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing. The citizens of Gebim are trying to hide.

31Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

32The enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day. He shakes his fist at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem.

32This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33But look! The Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will chop down the mighty tree of Assyria with great power! He will cut down the proud. That lofty tree will be brought down.

33Behold, the Lord GOD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.

34He will cut down the forest trees with an ax. Lebanon will fall to the Mighty One.

34He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.